Archived News:
EA community manager APOC has posted some
Red
Alert 3: Uprising Clarifications on the Command & Conquer Forums clearing up
a few things about the recently announced RTS expansion. Admitting he was
mistaken about this, he says the add-on will include traditional Skirmish mode
play, going on to provide additional details about the Commander's Challenge,
that they are looking at retail options in addition to the already announced
digital distribution, and, perhaps contradictorily, that the price point they
eventually settle on will reflect that it's a digital download (and perhaps more
contradictorily,
Direct2Drive has priced preorders at $19.95). APOC also stresses that the
game is still early in its life-cycle, so: "While co-op nor multiplayer are not
included with Uprising, we absolutely haven't forgotten our multiplayer audience
and will have more info in the coming months ahead." Thanks Ant and
Planet Command &
Conquer.
The first patch for Mirror's Edge is available to update DICE's
just-released action/adventure game. The new version addresses a potential
freezing issue on some systems when PhysX is enabled. The download is available
from AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Games On Net.
GamePolitics reports a
new bill that's been proposed here in New York to create a state law to
prohibit the sale of video games using racist language or stereotypes. The text
of the bill seems to be missing, but here is the summary of Bill A01474:
"Prohibits the sale to minors of certain rated video games containing a rating
that reflects content of various degrees of profanity, racist stereotypes or
derogatory language, and/or actions toward a specific group of persons."
A demo for Children of the Nile: Enhanced Edition is now available to provide a
sample of the improved edition of Tilted Mill Entertainment's city building
strategy game set in ancient Egypt. The Enhanced Edition offers the content of
the original Children of the Nile augmented by gameplay enhancements, additional
items and Windows Vista compatibility. The demo can be downloaded from the
Immortal Cities:
Children of the Nile Website, or one of these mirrors:
AtomicGamer and
FileFront.
A new trailer from CrimeCraft offers a look at Vogster Entertainment's
upcoming Unreal-engine MMOG. The clip shows off a good deal of combat in the
third-person shooter, which seems more like open warfare than any sort of crime,
and there's
a new CrimeCraft preview on DESTRUCTOID that helps explain how this game
satisfies their urges to "shoot people online, or grief 12-year-olds on
PlayStation Home, or gank phat lootz in an MMO." Back to the trailer, this can
be found on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
CNET News -
Don't pretend video games are as bad as cigarettes.
"No matter what anyone says about violent video games, and no matter what
links may be found, no one can prove that playing them actually causes
children to be violent. In fact, numerous studies have found that there is
no link between violent video games and aggressive behavior."
Gamers With Jobs -
Braid: In Search of Meaning *Contains spoilers*.
"My experience with the game changed dramatically once I started needing
help, or indeed even discussing the game with other gamers. Because the
Sturm und Drang about the game was much more about Blow than about Braid."
Humans Enabled - Open Letter to Game Makers - Investigate the niche of
GNU-Linux compatibility. Thanks Ant and
Digg.
"Over the next 1 to 3 years, and beyond, we are set to see the glory of the
GNU/Linux operating system take hold as the prominently used end user
platform for computers everywhere. This is why it makes a whole bunch of
sense for you to port your games to GNU/Linux."
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez.
DICE announces that Mirror's Edge is now available in North America, and
that the Windows edition of the parkour-themed action/adventure game will be
available worldwide on Friday. They also note that the playable demo is
available on Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network, but to keep PC players from
feeling too neglected, also mention that purchasers of the PC version will
receive a remixed version of the Mirror's Edge soundtrack featuring the second
best Still Alive song ever featured in a video game. The announcement
also confirms the first DLC for the game is due for all platforms in just a
couple of weeks: "DICE also confirmed today that downloadable content (DLC) for
the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® videogame and
entertainment system and the PC will be available January 29th. This special DLC
pack will challenge players to achieve the fastest times possible on nine races
across seven all-new and totally redesigned Time Trial maps. The DLC pack will
be available for $10 USD or 800 Microsoft points."
Ubisoft announces Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, a prequel to the
western-themed shooter Call of Juarez, is under development at Techland. The
game will be released for Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 later this year,
and here is a brief description: "Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood transports
players from a ravaged Civil War-era Georgia to the Aztec ruins of Mexico. In
the wildest West ever depicted, players can embody both McCall brothers in an
intense Wild West storyline full of greed, lust and lawlessness that takes place
during a legendary period of American history." They promise more details on the
Call of Juarez Website, but it has not
been updated yet.
According to
an
announcement on the Bethesda Game Studios Forums, a new patch is now
available for Fallout 3, updating the Windows and console editions of the
RPG sequel to version 1.1. The update address bugs in the game, fixes several
quests, and adds trophy support to the PlayStation 3 edition, as noted in the
patch notes. The new version is available automatically via Windows LIVE,
Xbox LIVE, and the PlayStation Network, but no manual patch is available at this
time, nor is there a way to update the Steam edition yet. Thanks Phoenix.
Update: The manual version of the patch is now available, the US patch is on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileFront,
FilePlanet (registration required),
Gamer's Hell,
GameSpot (registration required), and
Strategy
Informer; the UK patch is on
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileFront,
FilePlanet (registration required),
Gamer's Hell, and
Strategy
Informer; the German patch is on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell; the French patch is on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront.com; and other localized patches are on
AtomicGamer.
The Lord of the Rings:
Conquest Ships For Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC Worldwide announces the
global multiplatform release of The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, the
action game based on the film depiction of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the
Rings series. Here's word on the game, which follows the paradigm of Pandemic's
Star Wars Battlefront games: "Players can choose to control their favorite
heroes and villains including Aragorn, Gandalf, the Witch-king, the Balrog and
even the Dark Lord Sauron. Players can also engage surrounding characters in the
world such as wargs and oliphaunts, control catapults and balistas, and even
play as giant creatures such as cave trolls and Ents. As well, fans can play
through the campaign modes cooperatively via online or split-screen and relive
their favorite battles competitively via four-player split-screen or online with
up to 16 players." More can be found on the
game's official
website. Those seeking to sample the Windows edition are out of luck,
however, as last week it was revealed there will be no PC demo for
the game.
A post on the
Steam
Users' Forums says a patch for Left 4 Dead is expected this week,
reflected in an email from Chet Faliszek saying the PC patch is separate from
the Xbox 360 patch, and so it is Valve that accepts blame for tardiness in
updating the Windows edition of the zombie shooter, rather than Microsoft. A
follow-up on Shacknews
confirms both the legitimacy of the email and the plan to release the patch this
week. According to Faliszek: "Sadly Microsoft has nothing to do with the pc
patch... that delay is all us. The PC and 360 will be patched independently not
sure where people picked up that exploit/bug fixing was tied together. Only the
DLC will be simultaneous. The problem on the PC side was a few large bugs
affected other systems that we were going to rewrite on the pc so we ended up
waiting to fix a whole class of bugs instead of just individual bugs. The patch
should be out this week."
Sony's
Station Forums outline the free character transfer service that begins today
for Star Wars Galaxies, the MMORPG set a long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away. Word is transfers, "are only offered to those accounts with characters
created on or before December 11, 2008 on the identified galaxies." They have
posted a
Step-by-Step Guide to Transferring and a
FAQ
outlining the process. Thanks
Massively.
Southpeak’s Aubrey
Norris talks about X-Blades on GameZone is an interview about
X-Blades, Gaijin Entertainment's upcoming
action/adventure game. One of Aubrey's answers addresses comparisons to Tomb
Raider and Diablo: "With the inclusion of a strong female lead and
ancient temple environment there is definitely a comparable similarity to the
Tomb Raider franchise, however in regards to the Diablo series there is much
less comparable content. Visually the game was conceived with a very unique
feel, but in drawing similarities to other existing games there is a much
stronger connection to franchises such as God of War and Devil May Cry. Combat
mechanics, level design, camera angles and such stay fairly true to the
hack-and-slash approach to the action adventure genre, however X-Blades provides
a noticeably quicker pace to the formula by integrating a new approach to the
magic system with the use of a 'rage' meter in place of the classic “mana pool,”
and devising a system in which there is a greater degree of cohesiveness between
the melee, magic, and shooting combat mechanics that is often lacking in similar
titles."
Yarr! A new version 2.1 of the Battlefield Pirates 2 modification for
Battlefield 2 is now available on the
BFPirates Website, and word is: "Release 2 brings many new maps, larger sea
vessels, aircraft, new kits and pickups and several new game modes, including
Capture the Flag and Zombie modes."
The Changelog
outlines what's new in the new version, which is available as a full client, or
as an incremental patch for those who participated in the version 2.0 beta test.
The DVD drive in my Xbox 360 had been problematic for a while; sticking after
opening part way. It finally stopped closing at all the other day, so while it
will still work for downloadable games and media content, the system is useless
for playing disc-based games anymore. The drive got flaky long enough ago that I
probably could have had it fixed under warranty had I done so right away, but it
started out as a minor thing, and the growing seriousness of the problem only
became apparent more recently when it refused to open if it was closed with no
disc inside, requiring the use of a paper clip in that little emergency pokey
hole dealie (EPHD). Anyway, I replaced the unit with a hard drive-free arcade
system, since I knew from my pal Devicer's experience with an RRODed system that
I could just put the drive from the old system on the new one. Sure enough, this
new Jasper-based unit was very happy with my old drive, and I had no DRM issues
with downloaded games or content. Funny thing was, I did have to delete games
installed from the hard drive and reinstall them to be able to play them from
the drive. I'm guessing that's somehow related to preventing the play from hard
drive feature being used to pirate games, but I can't figure out how.
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